Sewing for Yourself

Many thanks to Jezebel.com for not only providing a healthy dose of snark everyday, but for also calling the Times on their bogus trends reporting.



For those of you who don't read the New York Times or the coverage of the Times, there is usually a regular local living feature about trends sweeping the city and, thus, soon to be sweeping the nation. One article I remember was about glamorous young women riding bicycles. They tool around the city in their fashionable frocks and pseudo-windswept hair with big sunglasses and a droll attitude that says, "I'd rather be in Paris." FYI, it's not really a trend.



Today's NYTimes has an article about the latest craze sweeping Brooklyn — sewing. Now I'm not against sewing. I love sewing. I've sewed for a very long time. HOWEVER, I am with Jezebel on this one in that this is a non-trend. (BTW, here are the links to the Jezebel article and NYTimes article.)



Why do I think it's a non-trend? Well, I think it was a non-trend before this article. It'll probably become a trend now, but that doesn't really answer the question.



The thing is that crafts like knitting, sewing, woodworking, baking, etc. have been around for a long time (obviously), but they don't get taught anymore in school. People are interested in taking classes and reading books on these crafts because they weren't able to learn these crafts when they were younger. An excellent example of this comes from my own life.



It seemed like every time I'd want to take one of those classes in high school the school board would cut them from the curriculum. I really wanted to learn how to sew when I was 15. My grandmother wasn't able to show me at the time, so I was really looking to taking sewing in school. I postponed it by a year, though, so I could get my second year of French out of the way. I wish now that I hadn't because that was the year they ended Home Ec in all schools. I didn't think I'd ever be able to learn how to sew. Luckily, I had a college major that required craftsmanship. I got to learn more than just sewing. I learned woodworking, painting, molding and casting.



And maybe another reason why I don't like the article is because it makes me feel like I'm just another hipster Brooklynite. "Oh, you sew? Of course you live in Brooklyn!"



I live in Brooklyn because I like Brooklyn and I happen to sew.